Dogar Thorn

Description:

Bio:

History:
Dogar Thorn hails from Perth, a tiny hamlet nestled in between Cardinia and Teryn. His birth was unremarkable. His parents were of the landed gentry, but were in essence wealthy farmers. He learned to farm the land and how to hunt, skills that would come in handy later on in life, but he was restless and bored. He didn’t get along with his parents or his two younger siblings. When he turned sixteen, his parents disowned him for dallying with the help and he made his way to the city of Cardinia.

He soon realized that he had no viable way to earn a living and took to gambling and mercenary work for a notorious thieves guild to make ends meet. He had a talent with a blade and some would say a silver tongue. He soon became quite the ladies’ man and could more often than not be found in a chambermaid’s bed or at a high-stakes card game, if not actively engaged in a job. He was a reprobate and a scoundrel, but people of the underworld of Cardinia tolerated him because of his willingness to take on the odd jobs that no one else wanted to and because he knew how and when to lay on the charm. He made many friends during his time in the underbelly of Cardinia, but none that he would sustain. Trust is a currency that most could not afford in the rookeries of the capital city.

The leader of the thieves guild Dogar worked for in Cardinia is known as King John. King took an interest in Dogar and recruited him from the underbelly of Cardinia where Dogar whored and gamed and soon had him working the Great Highway between Cardinia and Hellzapoppin, which was the main thoroughfare the merchants used to get from city to city to sell their wares. Dogar soon made a name for himself and was dubbed The Black Mask, after the mask of disguise he wore during his runs. The magical mask allowed him to change his appearance often and baffled local authorities who could never quite pin down enough of a description of Dogar to portray him on a wanted poster. Dogar made a nice living for several years running this route—even with his puny ten percent cut. Despite his reputation as being the terror of the roads, Dogar never once took an innocent life. Most of the victims of his raids were left bodily intact, if a great deal poorer. That is not to say that he never took a life; if his own were threatened, he would respond with quick and efficient savagery. Dogar fighting was poetry in motion. He was a bit of a dandy, and was so concerned with his appearance that he had to even make his fighting style beautiful. His “dance of death,” as some of his cohorts called it, was all whirring blades and stylish parries, striking ripostes and elegant pirouettes. After he began working of King John, he studied for a time under both a dance master and sword master in Cardinia, and it showed in every move he made on the battlefield.

Dogar never worked alone. Damon Mora and Zigmund Elroy were two thugs who King John had assigned to assist him in his route. To say that they had an uneasy alliance was probably generous. The three never got along, Damon and Zigmund being very resentful of the roles of second fiddles they were required to play. Neither had the natural talents that Dogar had, and so were relegated to more demeaning tasks such as taking care of the horses or restraining victims who dared to attempt to fight back. They were bullies, and Dogar disliked them as much as they did him. Several times he had to bodily prevent Zigmund from violating the women they robbed and Damon from pocketing the proceeds of a night’s work.

Disgruntled nobles from both Teryn and Cardinia would often send assassins after him. He once relieved a rich noble of the House Dania in Cardinia of his family crest, catapulting into motion the incident that would make him rise to legendary status among the populace of Cardinia. The noble sent Drager Noman and Barok Veno, two notorious sellswords who worked for the royal family of Cardinia, to dispatch Dogar. Barok and Drager were touted as being undefeated on the battlefield and were considered heroes after they had single-handedly defeated a beholder who had set up camp in the woods outside of Cardinia. After bumbling around the forest surrounding the Great Highway for two weeks, Bartok and Drager finally zeroed in on Dogar and his not-so-merry band while they were on a job for King John. They were holding up a caravan of goods that were in the process of being transferred from Teryn to Cardinia, when the two ambushed Dogar, Damon and Zigmund. Bartok and Damon ran and hid in the woods, of course, leaving Dogar to take care of both enemies himself—which he did with style and flare. The caravan guards later said that all they saw were two of the most notorious fighters in the land being cut down within seconds by a man wielding two blades. They returned to Cardinia on foot with nothing more than the clothing on their backs and stories of The Black Mask’s prowess. They went to pubs and inns and spread the tales of his derring-do far and wide. The story grew so large and patently ridiculous, that some of the versions of it had him battling not only the two sellswords, but an entire retinue of goblins, trolls and giants. The furor died after a few weeks, but his reputation had been made.

King’s intelligence network spanned the entire content of Irunia and he had moles planted in almost every organization; even the harbor master of Teryn was deep in his pocket. King discovered that a shipment of stolen goods had docked at the Teyrn port and was to be transported through the Great Highway to Cardinia. King sent Dogar to retrieve certain valuable items. A golem was guarding the caravan, which would prove to be Dogar’s greatest challenge yet. After a long and arduous battle, Dogar came out the victor. Dogar returned to Cardinia triumphantly and, after doctoring the manifest and appropriating a few items for himself, handed over the shipment to King John’s minions. What Dogar did not realize was that among the two scimitars, the bracers and the armor he’d stolen was the one item that King John had lusted after—the Bracers of Lighting. It was the last job he was to do for King John, but escape would not be so easy. King suspected that he had been stealing from the till and sent an assassin after Dogar, who managed to evade her. It was around this time that Dogar met Stella.

Stella Thorn lived in Brie, a village on the banks of the Brine River. She met Dogar on market day in Cardinia. The old adage that a good woman could reform a rake was true. He fell head-over-heels and asked her to marry him—several times. She would not accept his courtship unless he cleaned up his act. He moved to Brie (it was clearly time to leave Dodge City, anyway), changed his name and found himself gainfully employed as a scout for the local militia. He simply vanished from King John’s radar. Two years and six proposals later, they married. The lived beyond the outskirts of the village in a two-story cottage in the middle of the woods. The house belonged to Stella’s father, who had been a ranger for most of his life. The old man lived with them for four years before passing away, and in that time he took Dogar under his wing and passed on everything he knew. Stella gave birth to twin boys soon after their marriage, and was busy keeping house and raising their children. Dogar lived this idyllic existence for five years.

His peace was shattered when his wife contracted smallpox after nursing village children who had the illness. She soon passed it on to her two boys. Dogar, who’d had the illness as a child (which left faint scars on his chest, neck and jaw line), remained immune to the insidious disease that swept the countryside. Stella succumbed to the disease almost immediately, but the boys lingered for weeks, finally dying within two hours of each other. Dogar did not handle bereavement well and went on a week-long drinking binge. He lost weight and gained an unhealthy pallor. He lost vast amounts of money playing cards and dice at the local inn and started fights with just about anyone who looked at him the wrong way. He would go on midnight strolls through the forest, practically daring the creatures of the night to attack, and yes, kill him. But it never happened. He would sleep outside to avoid the bedroom that he’d shared with his wife. He lived this way for two months before he pulled himself together and examined his life.

He slowly healed, but still could not bring himself to sleep indoors. He felt caged in when he did, and would often have vicious nightmares of his wife and children covered with gruesome pustules and sores that leaked pus and blood. It was during this dark period in his life that he began to appreciate all that his father-in-law taught him about the forest, the only place that granted him a measure of peace. He became the official caretaker of the woods surrounding Brie and spent his days wrangling with poachers, thieves and miscreants who disregarded the laws of the forest. He kept himself isolated from everyone with whom he used to socialize at the village. He would sometimes go weeks without hearing the sound of his own voice. He lived a very quiet existence until that day…

Traits:
• Dogar wears a dark paisley scarf to hid the smallpox scars
• He was a highwayman for 8 years, before that he gambled and performed odd jobs to make his living
• Very lucky at cards; almost all the valuable equipment he has was acquired at the tables
• Is very talented at maneuvering through both woodlands and cities
• Used to pride himself on his appearance, but is now rather unkempt. Not unclean, just scruffy. People who he knew in Cardinia would be shocked at his appearance.
• Made some enemies due to his unsavory past. Has kept pretty low-key for the past nine years, but it wouldn’t be surprising if one day his past caught up with him…
• Dogar is unaware that one assassin is still looking for him—an Artemis Entreri-like character who once worked for King John. You can name him whatever you want, since it’s someone Dogar does not know. It might be interesting if this person was a woman.
• I see my character living alone in the woods, literally. He is the polar opposite of how he used to be. He has no friends and he’s OK with that. I think developing his character is going to be interesting, because maybe when he starts adventuring, and actually being around people, he’ll gain some of the levity and lust for life he used to have. But that’s still going to take time. The dude’s been living in a forest by himself for the past two years—his people skills are totally rusty.
• I actually think it would be very interesting to have Dogar totally ignore the presence of gods, due mostly to the losses he has suffered. Could we maybe maneuver it somehow that he slowly regains his faith and gains the ability to cast spells? I mean, like if we ever reach level 30 or something. Maybe there’s someone in the party who can influence him. Something to think about. As of right now, he’s totally an agnostic.